Shalby Hospitals hires investment bankers for IPO

Mumbai, Dec. 23 -- Shalby Hospitals has hired investment banks for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) that will see the company raise around Rs500 crore, two people aware of the development said.
"The hospital chain has been in discussions about the IPO with investment banks over the last few months. They have recently appointed Edelweiss Financial Services, IDFC Capital and IIFL Holdings Ltd as the managers for the IPO," said one of the people cited above, requesting anonymity as the talks are private.
The hospital chain could raise around Rs500 crore through the planned IPO, said the second person cited above, adding that the IPO could be a mix of primary and secondary share sale. He also requested anonymity.
VCCircle.com, citing Shalby Hospitals' chief executive Ravi Bhandari, had reported in September that the company was planning to go public.
E-mails sent to the company on Monday did not elicit any response. E-mails sent to Edelweiss, IDFC Capital and IIFL Holdings too remained unanswered.
Shalby Hospitals, founded by Dr Vikram Shah in 1994 as a six-bed facility in Ahmedabad, is now a chain of multi-speciality hospitals with nine hospitals across six locations in western and central India and three more multi-speciality medical facilities in various stages of completion and commissioning.
The hospital chain currently has a capacity of 1,700 beds, according to the company's website. The ongoing expansion plans of the company peg its near future capacity at 2,500 beds.
Shalby Hospitals' specialities encompass areas such as joint replacement surgery, spine surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, cardiac surgery and sports injury care.
The chain has four hospitals in Ahmedabad and one each in Vapi, Jabalpur, Indore, Goa and Mohali.
The hospital chain also has OPD centres across Africa in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It has a tie-up with UAE-based RAK Hospital.